Chapter 5: Battle of Christophsis
Love is like war in that the slightest of sparks can set off a blaze like no other, a fire so huge it will be unstoppable.
Hyperspace (Christophsis)
"Battle of Mygeeto, 500 thousand clones deployed" The offensive in the north to destroy the separatist stationed there weakened other fronts. It was a necessary offensive but made us also use all our reserves in the rest of the front, weakening yet another defensive sector.
"The attack started one hour ago," said the commander of the 203rd. He was with me in the coordination center of the Maelstrom. The personnel in this area were also my brothers, with the exception of two Admirals, who together with Anakin were the only non clones on the whole ship.
"If we win this offensive, we can close this front entirely. Investing most of our forces in the north was a necessary sacrifice. Do we have confirmation of the locations of General Grievous or Count Dooku?"
Rapidly one of the members of the staff put up a map, showing where was the last contact with both of them.
"The last time we had confirmation of their presence was on Mimban."
Right, that was some days ago. Probably they will not reach Mygeeto in time.
"I want a constant update of what is happening in Mygeeto."
One of my brothers replied loudly in the affirmative. It was really pleasant to have competent personnel. The last months of the war in my second life left me dealing with incompetent children that didn't even know how to properly address an officer.
"May I ask Sister?" Said my brother, the commander of the 203. "I understand that it's our priority to destroy enemy forces, but this offensive is leaving our defensive lines in some sectors very weak, is it worth it?"
Mostly it would depend on the success of Mygeeto. If our operations there were successful, something I had personally invested in, we would be able to successfully liberate an entire sector. As a direct result, the border with the separatists would solidify significantly
"If we succeed at Mygeeto we will have the manpower to put more reserves and legions in other fronts However I fear that if this particular front falls into stagnation, it will allow an isolated enemy force to dig in and grind down a very large part of our army. Therefore taking it before they can fortify will result in long-term savings in troops and reduce the total amount of fronts, which considering that we're relying on quality over quantity it's the best of bad options"
I modified the map to show a hypothetical case where the separatist troops bordered most of our system.
"If this happened we would lose many potential chokepoints, quality doesn't mean anything if each legion is facing more than a million droids,"
I changed the map, this time focusing on the area around Mygeeto.
"In this situation we could concentrate our forces, just imagine if we had for each fight instead of a legion and 3 Venators, dozens of Legions, and hundreds of venators. This amount of firepower would mean that we have the absolute advantage"
Showing a graph I showed him a line of efficiency.
"More troops doesn't mean more efficiency nor better combat abilities, actually mostly the contrary, if you see as the numbers increase the combat efficacy of the force is decreasing slowly and slowly until it is no longer combat effective. It's simply not possible for Command to keep up with the exponential increase of these values."
Then I showed another line.
"Now, our forces would never reach the point of decreasing efficiency, as much as the droids, meaning that when the fronts are larger, we have the disadvantage, however, the shorter the front, the greater our advantage and the more their capabilities will decrease. That's the reason why we should decrease our front lines even if it means giving territory on other frontlines." Truly it was a simple concept that rang true throughout all my lives. "He who defends everything defends nothing"
He nodded and slowly checked the numbers. I looked proudly, he wanted to learn, and that was a capacity that most didn't have.
"Clones, they only serve for what they were made for" Scoffed one of the Admirals, present in the area, I turned around and looked at him, my ships Admiral seemed to see us as things, which was a disgrace but not enough to kick them off the ship and ask for new one.
"Respectfully we are not things Admiral," I said while deleting most of the images and statistics that I opened to show my Commander about strategic movements.
The other Admiral interfered in the discussion, "The Clone is right, you should listen to what it says"
It says?!!!
My heart burned with rage, I wanted to punch him for that slight so hard. For a second I entertained a thought about the possibility of just doing it, but I calmed myself and turned to them.
"We will arrive at Christophsis in 24 hours, I think you two should rest for the battle that is coming."
They understood the implication that they had outstayed their welcome before turning away and slowly, leaving the Coordination Center.
"I wish I could break that Slemo's jaw," said one of my brothers, the rest simply nodded and agreed.
"The moment we start acting like barbarians, they will kill us. Even if I understand your opinion, please just don't do it. I don't want to give you back to the Kaminoans"
Silence had fallen again in the coordination room, The Battle of Mygeeto had just started and probably I wouldn't get a progress report anytime soon. The other frontlines meanwhile, were fighting in small skirmishes that didn't require my intervention.
"I want you to keep a constant update of the situation on all fronts, I am going to sleep for a little bit, if you need to wake me up due to a relevant change in the situation, you wake me without caff at your own peril."
"Understood"
I slowly returned to my quarters, greeting every brother I saw. When I entered my room I took off my armor and went to sleep. I need rest, I've only been sleeping for four hours each standard rotation. There was no way this wasn't going to stunt whatever meager growth I had left.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I woke up to someone slamming on my door and shouting, I woke up rapidly and opened the door only in my body glove.
"What is happening, the offensive has failed?"
In front of me was my brother, the commander of the 203, and the two Admirals, one of which was the one who was slamming the door apparently.
"Sorry, Supreme Commander, they insisted on waking you," said my brother. I moved my hand in a way to show that it was fine. Looking back at the admirals, they seemed beaten up.
"What happened?" I asked the Admiral, the one who called us things in the coordination center.
"Two of your clones beat us when we were walking to the control area of the Maelstrom"
You damn idiots, this was exactly what I told you not to do...
"What was their armor color?"
They looked at each other, "They wore pure white armor, no color"
No painted armor? That's impossible, each of my legions had their armor colored and even the armors in the reserve were painted.
"That's impossible, Admiral, in this entire corp, there is no set of unpainted armor. Have you been drinking?"
Both seemed offended. This time the other one talked.
"No, we haven't been drinking, two of those "Shinies" as those troopers call them, brutalized us." They noted with visible agitation.
These idiots were starting to get on my nerves. I personally checked all the inventory. There was no white armor in this entire corp.
"I repeat, we don't have unpainted armor, Commander, call a medic to tend to them, and make sure their blood is tested to find out what they've been imbibing."
They looked angry with me but left of their own accord after my brother started to communicate with the medic. When they were far away my brother looked at me.
"Should I still?"
"Yes, straighten up, if they drank alcohol in the last 24 hours, I will request new Admirals. I can tolerate them acting superior. However, I can't tolerate them getting drunk on duty and making up stories. We don't have a single set of unpainted armor in this entire corp. If they are going to lie they should at least learn how to do it convincingly."
He agreed and called the medic, slowly explaining the situation, when he ended he turned to me and looked at me slowly.
"Em, sorry sister, you don't have your armor on,"
I looked down, seeing how without my armor my feminine traits were more noticeable.
"It is fine, brother. They will not see me as anything other than an amusing toy anyway. It is not like being in anything more than my body glove is necessary."
He looked at me again and then moved his head the other way, was something wrong with him?
I sighed, very deeply, from the depths of my soul, when I realized the probable cause. I threw him a cookie.
"Password's 58391275"
He looked at my face, surprised, "What is that?"
"Holonet, the password in case you and the brothers want access to porn" I went to my room and took one piece of paper, slowly folding it so that its contents could not be seen.
"Here are the safe instructions, tell me if more and more brothers start to have sexual urges. Now If you let me, I will go back to sleep."
"Good night Big Sis," He said looking at the paper, and slowly at me he seemed embarrassed by the way he was moving his helmet.
"Good night, Brother," I said, closing the door and going back to sleep. I always thought that at some point it would be problematic to let the clones have sexual urges, I looked into some articles just in case it ever was to start to become something problematic. I can give them instructions about how to safely deal with the urges as they pop up. I don't think I will be able to explain to the Senate asking for a budget for prostitutes. So their right hand shall be their friend I guess.
I looked at a small mirror, seeing the dark circles around my eyes. "I really need to sleep."
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I next wake up, it is to my own body clock, which was something that improved my mood significantly in and of itself. No matter the body, I hate being woken up at odd times. I slowly got out of bed and gravitated towards the canteen I had on the pedestal opposite the bed to drink some good Caff. I then proceeded to head toward the mess hall to grab some solid food.
"So, that is where you were", I turned at the sudden and unprovoked beckoning of me from behind me, only to see Jedi General Anakin Skywalker walking towards me, hand raised in greeting.
What choice did I have? I raised my hand to greet him back before asking, "Do you need something from me, General?"
He stopped right in front of me and offered his hand to me. "In the days we have been together, we haven't actually met."
"O, that's right, I am very sorry, I have been busy, preparing the Mygeeto offensive which took most of my time"
He nodded " I understand. Is it alright if I eat with you?"
I nodded, probably it was for the best, and he looked like a nice person, totally in contrast with the admirals.
"It would be my pleasure."
We both walked to the canteen in silence.
"I feel sadness in you, is it something that I should know?"
I bit my lips, was this what I read a while ago? That they could feel how a person would feel? I don't like it but I guess I will have to work with that.
"It has nothing to do with the war if that's your concern."
We entered the canteen and took our food, sitting at one of the tables, eating this horrible food.
"Even if it doesn't have to do with the war, maybe I could help you, in the end, we are going to probably pass many years together, as long as it takes to end this war I probably will be your protector"
I took a bite of something that looked like a Durum but was much worse. If he was going to play to be the nice guy with me, it was okay, I had enough of those admirals jerks.
"Do you think that we are living beings? Or things?"
He looked surprised and looked at me, stopping to eat his food. "Obviously living beings, what is that question?"
I smiled a little bit, "Well, you definitely improved my mood a little bit today"
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POV CC-0601
I was thinking about my whole life from the time I was conscious until now.
I read the paper given to me by Big Sis.
"Masturbation and sex education"
I balled up the paper and threw it away, embarrassed by the situation and how it had developed. Obviously, Big Sis was tired and didn't notice how she looked and mistook my concern for this with interest in… her.
Fuck.
I took a pad, with concern, and wrote the password, immediately naked girls clearly having the times of their lives with men appeared in front of me.
"Fuck it, I can't do it."
I closed the pad and threw it away, not much time later, someone knocked on my door.
"Can I pass?"
"Yes," I answered, immediately entering Captain Rex. He rapidly closed the door and sat with me.
"So, what are we going to do about the shinies armor we used to punch those morons?"
"Hide it so we can punch them again or throw it to space so no one can find the evidence."
Those morons got what they deserved, now I also manipulated their medical results, surely now Big Sis will ask to remove them, so it's better to take out any evidence.
"Let's just throw it into space. I have moved enough things in the ship to assure that sooner or later, they will leave the ship. It's better to remove any proof that we did that. Big Sis seems pretty sure that there are no shinies in the whole corps and better keep it that way. I don't want to know what she would do to us if she noticed that we punched one superior."
He agreed, "Then help me."
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The battle alarms sounded in the ship. I was in the hangar. The 203rd was the first legion to land together with the 501st Legion.
"Everyone to the LAAT!"
Rapidly everyone got in their LAAT, I saw General Anakin Skywalker entering with Rex in one LAAT of the 501—the only Jedi of the corp. Surprisingly, I think Big Sis did this, how if not I could explain that there was only one Jedi.
The LAAT took flight and soon, we were flying over the skies of Christophsis.
I received a call, I took my hologram projector and accepted the call. Big Sis appeared in her armor, thanks to whatever I should thank.
"What is the situation on the ground?"
I looked slightly through the small LAAT openings.
"The droid invasion has just begun. The lack of anti air fire means that we may establish a strong point in the planet from where to start the reconquest."
She nodded and looked at some other map then she looked at me again.
"Right, I want you to communicate with me when you land. I hope you had time to de-stress, in worst case scenario, you will be in constant combat for some weeks"
Kriff, you don't need to tell me that.
"About that"
She shut down the call, and I sighed.
"Problems commander?" Said one of the soldiers, I denied "Everything is alright, Most of the planet has no separatist troops but we need to be careful, I want a full perimeter when we land boys"
"Roger that"
Some minutes later, the LAAT landed, opening its door.
"Go, go!"
Troops quickly left the LAATs. When I came out, I saw dozens of LAATs deploying troops.
I called Big Sis, and she rapidly answered.
"What is the situation?"
I looked around, "I'll send you the coordinates."
She looked and rapidly manipulated something out of the hologram call, that I couldn't see.
"Right, the main separatist base is 20 kilometers away from you, entrench yourself and wait until we deploy artillery, AT-TE, and the 501st and 44th Legion."
"Understood," I answered
I opened my communicator with all the troops.
"Defensive positions, we will wait for reinforcements!"
Suddenly dozens of LAAT flew over us, were they from the 501st Legion?
"Rex, answer me." I said to the communicator.
"Here, Rex, what do you need"
"You have passed the landing area, you are directly flying to the enemy!" I said, shouting, this wasn't part of the plan.
"Change of plans. General Skywalker has ordered us to attack immediately to avoid the possibility that the enemy forces gain more reinforcements."
Oh what in the seven corellian hells, Big Sis had a plan! What is wrong with Skywalker? I looked with my binoculars at the enemy positions, the city was fortified with droid positions everywhere.
I called Big Sis, who instantly accepted the holo call.
"What is happening now?"
"General Skywalker ordered a full assault with the 501st. What should we do?"
For a moment, I think I saw her raging, but rapidly she sighed and looked at something I couldn't see.
"I hate the Jedi, support them. Change of orders, I will send the 44th to surround the city."
"Understood"
I sighed. Looking at the disaster in the making.
"I am starting to hate the Jedi. EVERYBODY BACK TO THE LAATS!"
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Attack that formation" I shouted to the piece of artillery I had, I only had a few of them due to the Jedi attack. And now I was fighting with little I had.
"Commander, I need to understand what is happening on the ground, we have destroyed-"
Communication failed again, force damn this useless piece of trash. Probably they have some communications jammer
"Advanced Recon Force, you copy me?"
"Yes we do," Answered back the recon group. Finally some good news.
"I need you to identify a communication jammer and destroy it!"
"Roger that"
I looked at my 6 artillery pieces, damn it, with one hundred of them I could destroy this damn city without losing any troops.
The fire and the blaster sounded around me, the 44th legion and the 501st were also on the attack, but I couldn't communicate with them.
"B2 SUPER BATTLE DROIDS" Shouted one of my brothers, I took a look over my cover, and a formation of probably hundreds of those heavy clankers advanced toward our position.
"Artillery, shoot those clankers"
The artillery pointed slowly to shoot them, destroying the enemy formations.
"Big Sis never lied when she said that artillery was the best friend of the soldier" I said looking at how the B2 formation was destroyed by the sheer power of the artillery.
"Eliminate all those clankers" I shouted firing from my cover when they were close enough. My soldiers also shooted at them.
"They just don't stop coming!" Shouted one of my troops, taking cover I looked out to the whole area. Christophsis had a lot of cities, which had very big buildings, if we could destroy them, they would fall over the droids making our defensive area more impenetrable, and if we're lucky, crush a few of them while we're at it.
"Artillery, fire on the buildings"
The artillery fired against the buildings, slowly destroying them, and forcing them to fall down.
"Here the Advanced recon squadron, we have identified the communication jammer, preceding to destroy it"
Yes, finally some good news. I thought as I saw the skyscrapers collapse over the droid forces which were crushed like bugs under a boot.
"Area cleared" I said as I didn't see any more droids.
"Commander, situation report!" shouted Big Sis, she sounded very worried. This was going to be problematic.
"The situation is under control, we destroyed the communication jammer and the 44th and 501st are advancing."
She looked frustrated, she took her helmet off and looked at me.
I bite my lips inside my helmet.
"I want you, Captain Rex, Commander Lion, and General Skywalker on my ship as fast as possible when you are done down there!"
We were in big problems, very big problems.
"Roger that"
—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I, Rex, Lion, and Skywalker were in front of Big Sis, who paced in circles.
"Not only do I have to coordinate a space battle, the offensive of Mygeeto and the reconquest of Christophsis but also I have to deal with you changing the whole plan. Do any of you have any excuses?"
General Skywalker walked up to her proudly. "We have won, we ended the campaign in one day when you planned ending it in one week"
A slap sounded in the whole coordination room. The silence that ensued made the slap have more effect.
"How many soldiers died for your improvised plan? How many deaths could have been avoided if you just followed the plan. Do you think that you are immortal and victory means anything? It is not the victory that matters, but how it is achieved!"
Skywalker moved his hand to the part of his face that was slapped. "All of you take rest and take care of the wounded, I want a count of the casualties and Skywalker, don't even dare talk to me again if you will keep killing my brothers meaningless just because you need to compensate for something! And commander of the 203rd, I want you come with me"
I looked at her with surprise, was she going to punish me? I followed her, we walked in silence until we reached her room.
"I know it wasn't your fault, you can stay calm, you probably wanted to follow the plan, I know you."
I nodded, it was somehow reassuring not to be punished by her.
He patted my shoulder, "Good soldier, you probably did well, write an after action report as soon as you can"
I nodded and took off my helmet. "Of course I will"
I bit my lips when she was about to close the door, I didn't have a name yet, and maybe it was time to have one.
"Big Sis, can you give me a name?"
She turned around and looked at me, "It would be my pleasure, does Weiss sound well?"
If she gives me a name, I would accept it, doesn't matter what it meant. But curiosity won me over.
"Does it have some meaning?"
She looked at the roof and took off her helmet.
"Loyalty"
She then left, I walked to my room and exited, seeing the pad that I threw before leaving for the battle. After this much stress… Maybe I will try it.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pov Tanya
I was alone in the command room, looking at the statistics. That we could interfere in the invasion before they expanded was a very good luck shot.
I looked, very few deaths, this didn't make sense. They made a full offensive over a city full of droids, there were little deaths to what was expected. Casualties were mostly minor and could be back to battle in a few weeks to months.
Hearing the doors behind me opened, I looked behind and saw Anakin entering alone, what was he doing here?
I watched him approaching slowly, then he stopped and looked directly at me.
"I am sorry for… my imprudent plans.It was not in my intentions to have that many deaths, simply just to win the battle as fast as possible."
I knew and understood his intentions but it could have ended in disaster.
"I am sorry for slapping you, I thought the casualties would be actually higher, but they are inside the expected, substantially lower actually. I might have overreacted, my experience with incompetents that dont even see us as being people have made me cynical when it comes to these matters. I deeply apologize for my unacceptable behavior."
He raised his hands, "No no, I think that you were right, you were the higher officer and I destroyed your whole offensive by my reckless behavior, I am the wrong one here. Next time I will directly communicate with you"
That was impressive, did he just admit that he was wrong? That's a big and unnatural trait that I would appreciate.
"I accept your apologies and please, act as you said, communicating with me when you want to change plans. This time it went well. But what if it didn't? What if your plan failed and caused thousands of deaths? you need to understand that they are not only my soldiers, but my family."
He looked puzzled, sighed and supported his back in one of the walls. He had his hand on his chin and looked directly at me.
"I understand that and that's why I apologize. Rex has talked to me about the particular reasoning that you have. Being slaves by creation. I hadn't even seen it in that way until Rex explained it to me. I understand your pain as a slave, it's hard to not understand your pain"
Is it really? I approached him, took his hand with my two hands and moved it to my throat.
"Do you really know? Do you know the suffering of being created just with the only objective to be a useful object that when its creator decides it can be destroyed? Do you know the suffering of knowing that anyone could almost kill you and people wouldn't be angry about the death of a person, but the loss of an expensive asset? That if you actually started to choke me to death nobody would care except my brothers?"
Rex said he was trustworthy, he said that he would die for him and Rex explained to him our slavery, maybe he could do something to change things if he understood our situation.
"I…" He looked at me, taking his hands off my neck and removing my helmet, and to my surprise started patting my head
"Your suffering is understable, I will do whatever I can with the Jedi Council to help you and your brother's situation, most of us don't know anything about you clones. I didn't even know that Rex was less than eleven standard years until a few hours ago. This whole situation is horrible, and has to be changed as possible and soon as possible"
He treated me like a child, I gritted my teeth and walked away. But he took my hand from behind. His mind clearly set as he spoke.
"I want to make sure you know that you can count on my help"
I sighed, he treated me like something alive and respected me, that was difficult to find. Maybe I should bite my tongue and allow his reckless behavior.
"Thank you"
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A consular class cruiser landed on the Maelstrom, they should be the new admirals after reporting that mine had been deficient considering their addiction to alcohol and lying. I went in person to meet the new admirals. Even if they were going to treat me like an object, it was preferable to have a good first impression.
During my walk towards the hangar I met Anakin, who was also walking to the Hangar.
"Hey!" He said approaching me, I saluted him back.
He patted my helmet and laughed lightly. "I heard that you will have new admirals. It seems that the Jedi Council has also sent me something with that ship. So I will go with you to see what they shipped over."
I nodded and keeped walking, ignoring how Anakin treated me with too much closeness.
"The last admirals were drunk while on duty and after probably fighting each other they blamed some of my brothers. But they were such bad liars that they did not research our clones. They blamed some shinies for the act. Which dont make sense as we don't have any unpainted or fresh armor in the whole corp."
Anakin suddenly stopped walking and had a pensive face for a moment before speaking.
"I think I need to talk with someone"
I raised an eyebrow inside my helmet. But I stopped thinking about that when we finally reached the hangar. Seeing the consular cruiser open its walkway and from it came presumably 2 admirals in uniform. Unexpectedly though, came two orange figures who looked to be Togruta.
"Master Jedi Shaak Ti '' Said Anakin when we approached the Togrutas . "I didn't know you had a new padawan"
Shak Ti looked like a Togruta that men would definitely call her mommy. At least in my first life. While the other was a Togruta that was very young. Even as young as she seemed, she probably had more years than me.
"This is not my padawan Anakin, but yours. This young one is Ahsoka Tano"
Oh damn it, now I have two brats with magic powers and lightsabers.
While Anakin looked confused and his brain was probably restarting I approached Shaak Ti.
"And what is your job here?"
She smiled slightly. "Anakin has explained to us a little bit of the clones situation. I have come here to represent the Jedi Council in the improvement of the conditions of the clones. But before that. The Grand Chancellor had given us information. Apparently a separatist invasion force is on its way to Kamino."
...
Hundreds of feelings assaulted me when I heard that as the Jedi masters words hung in the air making everyone still. But I didn't hesitate. I opened my communications and sent a high urgency message.
"To all the Corp. We are moving to Kamino. All the strategic staff to the coordination center. NOW!"
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